Thanks to some late inning heroics by Boesch & Boston, the Tigers woke up today up 3 games in the AL Central.  Prior to last night’s win, the Tigers were 3-6 in their last 9 series openers, and are now 15-19 for the year (according to my front of several Post-Its math).  A win tonight guarantees a series win, with a day game to follow and then a weekend set in Kansas City.  The Tigers then face the Indians and Twins in 9 out of the next 12 in what should be a pivotal two week stretch for the Central Division.

Doug Fister gets his first start for the boys in blue tonight.  Fister is a tall and lanky 6-8, 210 righty (who bats lefty!) out of Fresno State.  Fister is in his 3rd year in the bigs, and he’s been improving every year.  He started 10 games in ’09 for Seattle, 28 last year, and then 21 this year before the trade.  He doesn’t strike out many, but he’s trending in the right direction (kind-of 5.31/4.89/5.48 K/9).  His real strength is that he doesn’t walk many (career 1.88 BB/9) nor allow many hits (just over 1 per inning).  He doesn’t throw hard, but he throws a two-seamer, curve and slider with regularity, and effectively.  He surely benefited from Safeco, so while his numbers should dip a little at CoPa, there is no reason why he can’t have success as a #4 or #5 starter here.

Matt Harrison climbs the hill for the Rangers.  Harrison has been nails over his last five starts, going 3-0 while posting a 1.16 WHIP and 2.04 ERA, but he is 1-3 with a 7.11 ERA in six career games against the Tigers.  Harrison is hittable, but he really limits the walks.

Guillen gets the day off to work on his home run trot, and because Raburn is 6-9 lifetime off of Harrison.

Your Please AJax, just take one pitch, Lineup is:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Brennan Boesch, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Ryan Raburn, 2B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Wilson Betemit, 3B

Your first place Tigers welcome the first place Texas Rangers to Comerica for a three game set.  Though the Rangers have not played well at Comerica as of late (3-14 over the last 17 games here), they are happy to be out of the Texas heat for a while, as it has been 108+ for the past week with no end in site.

The Rangers have been lauded by the pundits as the big winners of the trade season, while the Tigers’ moves have gone largely unnoticed.  The Rangers added Mike Adams and Koji Uehara to a struggling bullpen, arguably the only chink in the Rangers armor.  Adams and Uehara should be on full display during the series, though hopefully it will simply be to get their work in.

In a move that really won’t surprise anyone, Purcey was designated for assignment today to clear room for David Pauley in the pen.  In that same Freep article, DD noted that Al Al is fine and ready for tonight’s game if needed.

Colby Lewis is 10-8 on the year with a 4.00 ERA, with a 1.19 WHIP and 114 K against only 39 walks in 135 IP.  Detroit has had Lewis’ number over his career, as they have beat him up for 30 hits and 19 ER in 23.2 innings, including posting 9 against him back on June 6th.   Lewis allowed 4 earned against Minnesota last time out in 6 and 2/3, but he had two quality starts against Sea and Tor prior to that.  Lewis has alternated between really bad, and really good months this year, and August is setup to be really bad.  Let’s see if we can make that really, really bad.

Scherzer has been great as of late, throwing four straight quality starts with a 1.95 ERA dating back to July 2nd.  Mad Max is 3-0 against the Rangers with a 3.48 ERA in 5 career starts, and was the benefactor of the above mentioned run support in the win against the Rangers on June 6th.

A few notes:

– Benoit has a 1.54 ERA and 32 ks over his last 27 appearances covering 23.1 IP.
– VMart is hitting .522 with RISP over the last two weeks, and leads the AL with a .398 RISP average for the year
– Miggy’s career OPS vs. the AL West is 1.009

Tonight’s Watchout for the Rainout Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Brennan Boesch, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Carlos Guillen, 2B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Wilson Betemit, 3B

Loved that win yesterday.  JV fought through 2 bombs to keep the Tigers in it, and Betemit came through with a clutch 2 out RBI to win the ball game.  The way JV was gearing up in the 8th, I think he could have gone 9, but giving the ball to Valverde was the right move.  Bravo Jimmy. More JL props for leaving JV in there in the 8th after the 1 out walk with Konerko coming up.

I’d also like to point out that Jackson took the first pitch in all 5 ABs last night, and only swung and missed twice.  That K in the 9th sure looked like a walk to me.

Tigers look to payback the White Sox by taking the rubber game, and the series in Chicago.  I’m setting this to auto-post, so if there’s no lineup posted here, someone please fill it in for us.

My fantasy Tigers lineup against a righty:

1. Guillen, 2B.  He’s second on the team in OBP.  Moving him up in the lineup would mean an additional base runner every two games for Cabrera.

2. Maggs, RF.  He’s hitting .321 with a .386 OPS over the past month, and though his power is gone, he can go the other way and make contact when he needs to.  I realize that Peralta would be a tremendous fit here (or anywhere for that matter) but let’s not ruin a good thing.

3. Brennan Boesch, LF.   I really debated putting Martinez here, but I think that Boesch is still spooked by that Tampa series last year where Cabrera was walked in three straight games to load the bases for Boesch, and Boesch struck out or meekly grounded out in each at bat.

4. Cabrera, 1B.  Tough call here, but Cabrera gets the nod over Brutus from Baseball Stars.

5. Martinez, DH.  I get the impression that he gets much more respect protecting Cabrera than Boesch would (for now, anyway), and he’s got a .902 OPS with RISP.

6. Peralta, SS.  Speaking of RISP, dude is mashing to the tune of .337/.400/.526 with RISP. Where would we be this year without Jhonny Peralta?  Not in first place, that’s for sure.

7. Avila, C.  I don’t think that Avila is going to hit this half like he did in the first half, but he’ll still be an above average Catcher.

8. Betemit, 3B.  Best we can do.

9. Jackson, CF.  He’s an excellent defensive outfielder and one day he’ll learn how to take a pitch. That’s just not gonna happen this year.

JV versus Peavy tonight.  Peavy’s numbers have been sub-par all year, and even worse as of late.  His peripherals are not all that bad, posting a 1.26 WHIP and decent 7 K/9 against a 2.08 BB/9 for the year.  He’s 0-3 with a 7.16 ERA and 1.71 WHIP over his last three starts.

JV is actually better on the road than at home, going 6-2 with a 1.98 ERA over 10 road starts this year.  He’s in the top 3 in the AL in wins, Ks, ERA, BAA, and H/9.

Historically the Tigers do not hit Peavy, and Cabrera is a meager 2-23 against him for his career. I don’t think that lasts past tonight.

Tonight’s JL doesn’t care what I think lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Guillen, 2B
8. Betemit, 3B
9. Avila, C

Tigers head to the Windy city after benefiting from a friendly series with the Twins.  They find themselves a season high 2 games up in the central, and with an opportunity to do more damage to a division foe.

Heavy dose of trade rumors to discuss, the most interesting being a report that the Marlins are interested in Brandon Inge.  The return could be closer Leo Nunez.  With Al Al’s emergence and Benoit hitting stride, a closer really doesn’t make sense.  Inge has a no trade clause and is a 10 & 5 guy to boot, so we may be stuck with him regardless of any interest.

Continuing, the Tigers are thought to be aggressively pursuing Kuroda (thumbs up), Guthrie (pass), Harang (prob gonna stay in SD) and Vargas or Fister (…interesting), talking about Volquez (yes, if we can keep Turner) and Marquis (meh), and still asking about Ubaldo Jimenez. Would you part with Jacob Turner for Jimenez?  I would.

Tigers are also reportedly talking to Baltimore about Kenji Uehara, but I just don’t get that one.

Duane Below makes his second career start tonight.  He was good enough against Oakland last week but suffered a bit of bad luck as an error led to two unearned runs and he left in the 5th after giving up 5 hits and walking 1 while striking out 2.

Tigers called up 2010 draft pick and fellow Longhorn Chance Ruffin today, sending Lester Oliveros oli way down to Toledo.  Ruffin is a hard throwing former college closer who struck out 11.5/9 in stints at Erie and Toledo.  His boss dad knows a little something about pitching in the bigs.

What’s it going to take to put Boesch into the 3 hole and slide Maggs into the 2 hole?  Seems like a better fit considering their contact/power splits as well as the R/L/R/S we could pencil in every night.

Tonight’s Uh-Oh Jimmy is Screwing with Avila in the Lineup Now, Lineup is:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Maggs, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Guillen, 2B
8. Raburn, 3B
9. Avila, C (pick to click)

Tony Paul says it’s too early to worry, in today’s Detroit News.  So let’s heed his call and keep it short and sweet for the W.

Inge in, A Jax still out.  With an off day tomorrow, let’s hope that today is the last “rest the wrist” day.

1. Dirks, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Guillen, 2B
8. Avila, C
9. Inge, 3B

Well, there are two ways to look at last night’s loss.

One, this is a sign of the apocalypse.  With all of their recent 2nd half struggles, last night was a harbinger of things to come.

• Our ace was beat up for 4 ER in 6 innings, the first time in 10 games that he hasn’t gone at least 7 innings.
• Our bullpen posted a 9 ERA and 2.67 WHIP while striking out none in 3 innings.
• Raburn and Inge were a combined 1-5 with 4 LOB.
• Avila looked as confused as ever at the plate going 0-3 with 2 Ks.
• Raburn had a bad error which led to an unearned run.

On the other hand, it’s just one game.  Lots of baseball left, and the Tigers should be in the thick of a pennant race for the next 2 and a half months.  JV’s worst outing in recent history was a bloop single or squeezed strike call away from another dominant outing.

So which one is it?  I really liked JV’s reaction after the game – “It happens,” he said afterward. “It’s just one game. You shake it off and move forward.”  But it’s hard to ignore the  past, writes Bob Wojnowski.

On to the good news – Carlos Guillen and Al AlB were activated last night (Worth and Perry down), and Guillen will bat 7th today.  If he can hit for an average OPS+ and field the balls that come to him, that will be worth a win or two right there.

Apparently Ozzie Guillen gave this pep talk before the game last night –  “There are a lot of rumors out there you are going to get traded. Well if you don’t play well, of course you are going to get traded. This is baseball. This is a business. If you don’t play up to your potential … you’ll be out of here.”  It worked.

A Jax still out of the lineup with a sore wrist, I’ve seen DL mentioned in a few places.  Though at this point in time it would be retroactive to last weekend.  And Kelly starting again at 3rd.  Looks like Inge has officially lost that starting job.

1. Dirks, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Guillen, 2B
8. Avila, C
9. Kelly, 3B

Well, the Tigers start the 2nd half of the season tied for first place and with the most favorable schedule in Majors (yes that’s Majors – see ouchudied’s authoritative post) but with seemingly more roster questions that answers.

The glaring ones are at 3B and2B, where Inge and Raburn, respectively, have become post/text/email/twitter/headline trends, and not in a good way.  Though they represent the majority of the PAs at 2nd and 3rd, their combined OPS would only be 61 points less than that of Jose Bautista.  Raburn is what’s left of the lot of Sizemore and Worth, and is really just keeping the dirt warm at this point in time.  Inge may be the most polarizing player in recent Detroit sports history, but even JL’s once unbreakable loyalty to him seems to be fading.  But the Tigers also need another starting pitcher (they currently have 4 starters on the roster, though Furbush should be back soon), and some bullpen help.

Funny, because while there is little disagreement as to the vortexes at second and third, the Tigers seem fixated on a starter and potentially a corner outfielder.  Jon Paul Morosi is of the opinion that Hiroki Kuroda is a top the Tigers wish list (Buster Olney confirms the pitching search), and Olney recently tweeted that the Tigers may pursue Carlos Beltran (and maybe Ulbado Jimenez?), mostly because of the Tigers’ willingness to absorb salary obligations.

It looks like Guillen will be our starting 2B sooner rather than later (he’s hitting now), though there is no official time table for his return.

On to tonight’s game.  Due to masterful scheduling by the schedulers (and Ol’ Smokey), we get JV in back to back games.  The White Sox come in for the beginning of an AL Central heavy rest of 2011.  If we can continue to play above .500 ball against the Indians, White Sox and Twins, we likely win the division.

Tonight’s Ingeless Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Brennan Boesch, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Alex Avila, C
8. Ryan Raburn, 2B
9. Don Kelly, 3B

Short and Sweet for the W.

Lineup coming soon (if one of you doesn’t beat me to it).

1. Jackson, CF
2. Santiago, 2B
3. Dirks, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Inge, 3B
9. Kelly, LF

That’s five series in a row now where the Tigers have lost the opening game, and unless they win today, that will be four out of five series losses.  Not a good start to the 2nd half of the season.

JV looks to continue his dominance tonight.  I’d post the numbers, but you’ve likely already seen them.  In case you haven’t, 8 in a row would be big time.

He’ll be opposed by the formidable Dan Haren.  Actually, formidable might be downplaying it. Haren is 8-5 with a 2.85 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP.  He was roughed up for 6 ER in 4+ against the Mets 3 starts ago, but 14 of his 17 starts have been quality, and he has 6 starts where he’s allowed 1 or less runs and pitched at least 7 innings.  Now quality doesn’t necessarily get it done against JV, but we’ll need JV to really be JV tonight.

Kelly Gets the Nod at Third Tonight:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Raburn, 2B
9. Kelly, 3B

In my mind, this is a really, really big game for the Tigers.  A JV loss could turn a bad two week slide into an avalanche.  So JV is my pick to click tonight.  He’s gonna be filthy.

Well, we asked for it, and now we got it.  Rick Knapp is out as the Tigers pitching coach, Jeff Jones is in.  The Tigers’ pitching staff has been awful over the last two years, and really hasn’t been good as a whole since 2006.  But is Knapp the culprit?  Or the scapegoat for Dombrowski’s under performing roster and/or Leyland’s mismanagement?  Drew Sharp thinks it’s a sign of panic…and Knapp says he’s already getting calls, but those could be orders for ham sandwiches for all we know.

Before we get to tonight’s game, does Hiroki Kuroda do anything for you? Rumor is that the Tigers are “interested”, but I’m guessing that they are interested in plenty of starters these days.  Kuroda gets run support like Ryan Raburn gets hits, so you’ve gotta ignore his 6-9 record, and focus on his 2.90 ERA, and his career 3.48 ERA and 1.18 WHIP.  I love Kuroda, but he has a VERY SHORT shelf-life, and I don’t think the Tigers are in a position to play for this season only.  The Kuroda reward doesn’t justify the Jair Jurrjens risk.  On the other hand, if a cash strapped Dodgers team is willing to shed salary, then we can easily find a spot for Kuroda.

On to the Angels…who are 13-5 over their last 18…

Charlie Furbush gets his first big league start today, in an audition to take Phil Coke’s spot in the roster.  Furbush put up great numbers at Toledo, limiting hitters to 29 hits in 46 1/3 innings for a 2.91 ERA and .95 WHIP over 8 starts.  Predictably, he’s allowed more hits in the bigs (1.29 WHIP), but he’s still been pretty good out of the pen thus far.  He’s only going to get 75-80 pitches tonight, let’s hope those are in the 7th, not 2nd.

Angels hurler Joel Pineiro sports an impressive 7-3, 3.33 ERA career record against the Tigers, though he was lit up for 9 runs last time he met the Tigers in April 2010.  He’s better on the road than at home, posting a 4.97 ERA in six starts at home this year.  He hasn’t pitched out of the 7th since May 15th, and he’s allowed 4 or more runs in 1/2 of this starts this year.  But pitchers like Pineiro seem to give the Tigers fits.

In other news:

– JV has started a Twitter campaign to help Martinez get voted in by the fans. #votevictor
– David Ortiz did not pick Cabrera to be on his home run derby team.  I know what that feels like.
– Magglio Ordonez did get picked to one team…but teammates like Dunn and Uggla are not what he was hoping for.  (need Insider)
– While we’re not the only ones wondering why Raburn continues to start everyday, I don’t think this offense needs any help.  The Tigers are batting an AL leading .296 over the past 30 games an are averaging just over 5 runs per game.  Boesch is hitting .404 during that stretch.

Today’s pick to click is Maggs, who is a career .393 hitter against Pineiro and is showing signs of hitting again.

Tonight’s Can’t Don Kelly Play 2B AND 3B Lineup?

1. Jackson, CF
2. Boesch, LF
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Martinez, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Raburn, 2B
9. Inge, 3B

The Tigers limped in to the midway point last night, allowing 14+ runs on consecutive nights to the Mets, who are two games above .500 for the first time since April 5th.  The Tigers pitching staff has been pummeled by the Mets, and change is coming.  First of all, Schlereth was sent down last night and Villareal was called up.  Secondly, Coke’s spot in the rotation is in flummox, and Furbush may be offered the spot.  I would love to see Coke return to the pen, but I’m not sure that Furbush or Oliver at the 5 gives us a better chance every week.  We’ll likely find out shortly.

It’s going to take a heroic effort from JV to tame Mets bats that have set a club record with 52 runs scored in 4 ball games.  During that time, the Mets have 17,14, 18, and 20 hits, and are batting a ridiculous .404 as a team.  Maybe we just caught them at the wrong time.

On the bright side of things, the Tigers enter game 82 5 games over .500, in a tie for first place, and get JV versus Mike Pelfrey today.  Verlander’s last month+ has been epic.  He’s 6-0 with a 0.72 ERA in his last six starts, and 8-0 with a 1.56 ERA in his last 10.  Over his last six he’s allowed just 26 hits over 49 2/3 innings.

The Tigers have been something between bad and awful in the 2nd half under Leyland since he’s been here, and I’m not sure that he’s done anything to change that.  On the other hand, even with all of their shortcomings the Tigers have the most talent in a pretty weak AL Central, and according to two odds predictors, they have the best chance of winning the Central.  We should be in a pennant race for the next three months, and for us baseball junkies, we can’t really ask for anything more.